I would rather not report outside my assigned San Diego bailiwick, but there appears to be a news blackout from my OC peers (both in the FlashReport and OCBlog) in re the Harkey – Harman race and the ongoing hand recount requested by the Harkey campaign. Why the blackout from both very connected news sources, I can’t imagine – the coverage up until the morning after the election was blow by blow – down to the republishing of press releases, website foibles, mail, and chamber of commerce straw polls.

Both camps have been camped at the OC Registrar of Voters for a week and a half now. As of this morning approximately 75% of the Election Day ballots have been recounted by hand. That’s about 20% of the total votes. Harkey won on Election Day, so if she were going to pick up some votes, this would be the place. Her campaign challenged some 46 ballots, which were reviewed this morning by the Registrar of Voters. Not one of the Harkey campaign’s challenge to any ballot was upheld. Not one. You see, OC isn’t Kansas City under Pendergast, and it isn’t Tammany Hall under Tweed. The Orange County Registrar of Voters is fair, impartial, and professional.

Folks, here is the kind of ballot challenge we are talking about here: blank ballots with NO VOTE that the Harkey campaign claims (with a straight face) are intended as Harkey votes. Or worse. Much worse. Arguments that no reasonable person could (or has, in this case) taken to be anything but bald-faced attempts to toss Harman votes out, regardless of the clear intent of the voter. After the debacle earlier of no challenged ballots being tossed, it is my understanding that the Harkey campaign has increased the number of challenges this afternoon… presumably they’ll have the same stellar record.

I think that the mainstream media is about to break this story. And I think its going to be pretty embarrassing for the remaining members of the Harkey campaign and the candidate herself when the specific vote challenges (which are in writing and available for public review) are reported word for word. Of course, not all members of the Harkey campaign or her allies are still around engaging in this type of behavior. It’s interesting to note which members of the campaign and the OC establishment have chosen not to show up and get mixed up in this type of shameful activity. And it is a testimony to their sense of fair play and respect for our democratic system as a whole.

In the days to come, presuming this behavior continues, I am going to shine some public light on this process. I’m going to name names and repeat specifics. The Harkey campaign’s mouthing of ‘we want every vote to count’ while working feverishly, if ineffectively, to reverse the rightful results of an election will not withstand the light of public scrutiny. Given our national problem right now with ethics, the last thing in the world our Party needs is a demonstrable, ham-handed attempt to undermine the will of the electorate that can be easily documented by a media already hungry for scandal.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 21st, 2006 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.